A Bid for Fortune; Or, Doctor Nikola's Vendetta (1895) is a novel by Australian writer Guy Boothby.
It was originally serialised in The Windsor Magazine : An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women over 22 issues in 1895, and was then published in the United Kingdom by Ward, Lock and Bowden in the same year.
[1] "In this first novel, the protagonist is a young Australian, Richard Hatteras, who has made a small fortune in pearl-diving operations in the Thursday Islands.
Visiting Sydney before taking ship for England, he meets and falls in love with the daughter of the Colonial Secretary, Sylvester Wetherell.
He goes on to describe the novel: "Vulgar, carelessly plotted, unconvincing, it is at times almost a parody of the late Victorian adventure story.